You don’t learn the slang and have a true fluidity so to engage in it as you would in your native language over 4 years. And if you’re a footballer and dedicated to other things other than language it’s normal that after 4 years you don’t even have that great of a level in terms of basic communication. Just ask Bale who barely speaks Spanish after 4-5 years in Madrid. Although all signs are that Alexis speaks a little better English than Bale does spanish that doesn’t mean it’s the same as talking to others in your native language. Look at Emi Martínez who’s been in England for who knows how long but naturally he’s going to have a more fluid conversation with his spanish speaking teammates and thus tends to be with said teammates.

Anyway I said he was strange as I had Miss understood the tweet and thought that he had taken iwobis squad number off of him so he could get that seat which on top of all of the dog love, weird taste in music and odd instgram posts would make him a very strange individual

It honestly baffles me why foreign players would come over here with all the wealth in the world and not attempt to learn a quasi-universal language like English. It’s such a unique position for someone to learn a second language I honestly don’t understand why certain players seem to neglect it.

It honestly baffles me why foreign players would come over here with all the wealth in the world and not attempt to learn a quasi-universal language like English. It’s such a unique position for someone to learn a second language I honestly don’t understand why certain players seem to neglect it.

And it helps a lot post retirement.
English has lot of flaws but if you have a chance to learn a language which runs the whole world, Why wouldn’t you?

Because they’re footballers and they’re generally dull/uneducated/uncultured. But tbf you could say the same about spanish (spoken just as much or more than english in the world, though not as universal in terms of being the language of commerce).

Even then, from all signs of it, Santi, Nacho, and Alexis have given a good go at it. But one thing is speaking english and another is speaking it with your mates as you would your native language. If you watch Santi/Nacho/Alexis talk in the little interviews or rapid fire arsenaltv bits you can see that it would be hard to have a kind of flowing banter with them. But that’s normal, almost no one achieves that level in a new language in four years, especially if you have a job/are not a linguist/spy.